Why Do People Continue To Go To Cvs Or Walgreens??? (Page 2)

The Internet is flooded with horror stories about these arrogant, cocky, self absorbed pharmacists who think their s*** doesn’t stink as well as the pharmacy themselves. CVS and Walgreens have grown too big for their britches, but what I don’t understand is why people insist on flooding these stores every time they get a prescription? Insurance is insurance and there are tons of small pharmacies that will all go out of their way to cater to you a lot better than the name brands/chain brand outlets. So I ask again why do y'all keep going to a pharmacy that you hate? I think we should all have a national "go somewhere other than CVS or Walgreens" month!

REPLY

REPORT

Re: Tim (# 20)

Reporting criminal activity that affects who only knows how many people is not SNITCHING. Is it okay for a pharmacist to steal but not okay to report this person? No one taking any form of pain medication should feel that they need to stand at the counter and count their pills to avoid being ripped off. If you had discovered this theft after you got home you would have just been shorted and that pharmacist would have committed this theft completely unhindered. Let me ever catch anyone stealing anything from anybody then I will have no problem reporting them. if that makes me a "snitch" then so be it.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 2

Re: Tim (# 20)

Yeah, it happens. I had an Rx filled at RiteAid. The pills were in a small bag with paperwork. I got home, opened the bag and there was only one bottle that said 1 of 2. I called RiteAid and they said to come back and they would fix it. Things is over a couple years I had a number of problems with RiteAid. Finally I went to Walgreens. I love it, my doctor calls the Rx in and when its ready Walgreens calls me. RiteAid never had my Rx's done in a timely manner. Walgreens is always done in a timely manner and so many other things they've been helpful with.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 2

Re: BiggerBrat (# 22)

I guess it is not the company but the employees. I have had a totally different experience with Walgreen’s. After having done business with Walgreen’s over 20 years and in two different States the relationship went South fast when I asked a question about why the quality of the Norco generics went suddenly so bad. The Watson brand generics were just fine. They were replaced by the “Actavis” brand and that brand is awful. The people at Walgreen’s told me to basically go pound sand if I did not like it. I never had a complaint in over 20 years with Walgreen’s then I ran across some surly, arrogant employee and I took my business elsewhere. Btw, my State law requires a hard copy every month for pain type medications. No phone ins are allowed. Also, many Doctors will not phone in or fax in a prescription for opioid based medications regardless of what the law says.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 2

In the last decade most of the patents for these medications have expired, and so now more than 85% of the medicines that are commonly prescribed by doctors are generic and very cheap. Medications that used to cost pharmacies $400 for 100 pills (and then were sold to you for a profit) now cost pharmacies anywhere from $1-$10 per 100 pills. That’s right: many medicines got more than 100 times cheaper. What they sell them for, though, is their business.

Prescription medication prices began dropping as more medications became generic. This would have been bad news for insurance companies if people found out, since it would undercut their control over prescription medication purchases. To prevent this news from getting out, insurance companies (or, rather, their pharmacy benefit managers which will be discussed in the next section) issued gag orders to pharmacies so they couldn’t discuss prescription drug prices with their customers. If a pharmacy violated their gag order, the insurance company would retaliate by not allowing their members to buy prescription drugs at that pharmacy. These gag orders ensured that most people would continue to use their insurance to buy generic medications even though they didn’t need to. Since 2001 both CVS and Walgreens have nearly quadrupled their total revenue from retail prescription drug sales and doubled their number of retail pharmacies in the U.S. They were able to fund this growth mostly from the sale of generic prescription medications sold to customers, almost all of whom used a third party payer (insurance) to buy their prescriptions.

What’s more, people might pay several hundred dollars a year to get prescription drug coverage on their insurance, even though that coverage often increases the amounts they pay for their medications and cost the insurance company nothing. It’s like buying a book of coupons that say “one for the price of two” at your local grocery store. You can see why they didn’t want to tell you about it.....

truecostofhealthcare.org/medications

Lot more on this subject at the above website.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

Re: Tim (# 20)

Wow! Great story and good deducing skills as well :) you are definitely one of the very few to have any luck in getting the pills back!

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

Unfortunately, not every community has small pharmacies anymore. One local branch of a small pharmacy near me closed last year and shifted their business to CVS. There really is no other viable choice for most people. The third option that many low income people choose is Walmart. They have a pharmacy service which is comparable to others. I utilize Walgreens because they provide delivery as well and in the winter time that is a necessity considering where I live. Another factor to consider is that the evil in this equation is the at the corporate level, not at the local level. Most local stores are run by honorable people, all of whom need a job to live. They live in our communities, and we know them, and know that they are honest people. There may be a few bad apples now and again but they always get caught, fired, or move on. Bottom line is that the problem is at the corporate level, not below it. If change is to happen it must happen there.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 2

Re: Eric (# 26)

A couple of things. The pharmacy one goes to is often limited to the pharmacies that ones insurance will accept as “in network”. Second, it is at the corporate level that a problem starts but you are either a nice person or you are not. Too often pharmacy employees will treat you well or not so nice depending on what you have a prescription for. High blood pressure medication, cholesterol medication, and these types of medications and most often you are treated fine. However, if you bring in a prescription for a pain medication you might well be treated like a criminal. The pharmacy employees for the most part will talk to you in a derisive manner and you get a lot of “side eye” looks. I went to a Walgreen’s for over 20 years and thought I knew all of the employees well. Then when I was prescribed a pain med these “nice people”turned immediately into rude and judgemental people. Sure there are nice people in Walgreen’s but they are a rare breed if you hand them a prescription for a pain medication.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 3

Re: w john (# 27)

Do you know where your medicines come from? It can actually be something of a challenge to find out, because unlike shirts or apples, drugs do not have to be labeled with country of origin. As it turns out, over the past two decades, the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry has followed the same route as many other industries. Now, experts estimate that about four-fifths of the medications we take were made in China or India.

A high proportion of these are generic drugs that the FDA has approved as equivalent to the brand name product. But how good is the quality control? FDA has limited ability and personnel to inspect manufacturing facilities in China.

A recent recall underscores the potential hazards. On July 5, 2018, the European Medicines Agency recalled the blood pressure pill valsartan made by the Zhejiang HuaHai Pharmaceutical Company in Linhai, China. Apparently the pills had been contaminated with a probable human carcinogen, NDMA. A week later, on July 13, 2018, the FDA followed suit and recalled valsartan alone or in combination with hydrochlorothiazide from Major Pharmaceuticals, Solco Healthcare and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries.

Does It Matter If Your Pills Were Made in China?

If Chinese companies suddenly stopped providing active pharmaceutical ingredients or finished pharmaceutical products to the US, the health care system would be in trouble within a short time. So many of our medicines are made in China that critical drug shortages would endanger lives.

Our guest describes how the business of making drugs for the US market has changed and what the implications are. What, if anything, should we health care consumers do to protect ourselves?

REPLY

Was this helpful? 1

Re: Eric (# 26)

You make some very good points and I shared a similar experience recently. I have been going to a small neighborhood pharmacy for almost 30 years. A few months ago, they closed their doors without telling the people depending on them. I received a letter the day after the store closed telling me all my information was transferred to a nearby Walgreens. I have had trouble with every prescription I have filled at Walgreens since then. Apparently the small family run neighborhood pharmacies are being forced out of business. Unknown to most consumers, there is a cap on the number of prescriptions a pharmacy can fill for controlled substances on a monthly basis. When Walgreens took over all the scripts from my pharmacy, no one thought to check if they would be able to fill all the new prescriptions that would be sent there. I have considered switching but I hear the same thing about all the “big name” pharmacies. I was shocked and felt betrayed by the owner and pharmacists I knew for years because I was in the day before they closed and everything looked the same as it usually did; no signs of closing the doors permanently.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 1

Re: w john (# 21)

You have to be careful when you get your prescriptions filled. One time I was getting my Norco filled at Walgreen's and I get 120 10/325 and when I got the prescription back they only had filled for 20 and it said no refills. I am glad I didn't leave the store before I noticed this. The pharmacist claims when he put the prescription through the machine it cut off part of the number so it was only showing 20 to be filled. This isn't the first time this has happened. So read and look at the prescription before you leave the store.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 1

Sometimes you are LOCKED IN to what your crappy insurance will cover, IMHO THEY have DEALS with the large chains. AND IMHO mom and pop stores are few and far between and service is NOT what it used to be. Sadly

REPLY

Was this helpful? 1

Just need to know is subutex a triplicate prescription,can it be refilled in a different state? ## Hello, Susan! How are...

2 REPLIES

Walgreens won't fill my percription of 180 , 8 mg hydromorphone without contacting doctor to get a code to fill is t...

16 REPLIES

I was just reading everything on the site about oxy's. I used to abuse them and have found myself finally unfortunat...

2 REPLIES

Hi! I currently am in pain management in Jackson TN Due to my Dr being on "probation" and being watched very clo...

1 REPLY

Hello, I am writing because I am in a relatively desperate situation. A tragedy has happened in my family and for the pa...

16 REPLIES

I was on xarelto for 1 month. I was taking 20 mg for a blood clot that developed from my mediport. The med caused me to ...

21 REPLIES

Hi, I'm currently prescribed OxyContin 30mg every 8 hours and Dilaudid 4mg every 4 hours PRN for breakthrough and my...

I have hypothyroidism, and I've been on 25 mcg levothyroxine for three months now, and my blood results came back no...

1 REPLY

I take 9 oxycodone 10/325mg and morphine sulfate 60mg 2 times a day. My insurance changed and I was denied my prescripti...

3 REPLIES

2years continue tretment many doctor bat i am not pregnent.now i tret a new doctor and he prescrib me krimson35 and i co...

1 REPLY